Originally Posted by
Shannon Scott
TURO users beware! As independent business owner who supports the likes of AirBnB, UBER, Lyft, etc, I sadly presumed this company to be on the up and up. It was not. At first I rented a car no problem with the usual requests of a driver's license number, CC, insurance, etc. However, when I went to rent a 2nd car the same day I was returning a first, as they had no ability to do that online, and they do not have phone customer service, I simply thought what any consumer might, "create a 2nd account," same informations. Well this turned into a nightmare and I started to see the sham that TURO is and where all of its weak spots were. Firstly, they have no continental customer service. Its all outsourced. BTW, the 2nd account or 2nd car wasn't an issue as they simply asked me to upload a copy of my driver's license to which I did and then as the "review process" never finished, I started to inquire. Next thing I know is that they've restricted my account, albeit at first, not jeopardizing the one reservation already in place, and then they started asking for more copies of my Driver's License, a picture of me holding it up, a picture of the original credit card and then when that wasn't good enough? And keep in mind, this is hours and days going by nearing my original trip, they wanted copies of my insurance card, a utility bill, proof of employment and on and on and on. The end of this story is that they cancelled my account, they cancelled my original reservation and gave no explanation as to why after supplying basics, I was now not allowed to rent cars. The moral of this story? I went online and rented not one, but 2 cars from Enterprise is 5 minutes.
Welcome to FlyerTalk, and I hope you don't simply post your rant and run but rather stick around to engage with this community. I've learned so much by being here and have improved my travel a thousand-fold by gleaning gems of wisdom from others that make me a more informed traveler.
I, too, share a distaste for companies with poor customer support. Although I still use them, Uber is on my crap-list because they stranded me in a small town an hour outside of Beijing when they flagged my account for potential fraud (I guess an American using Uber in China is suspicious?) and then offered me no way to get in contact with them beyond their standard contact form (which takes a day for them to reply). So I do not at all begrudge you for putting Turo on your crap-list for their inability to be contacted to straighten things out. For companies that offer real-time services, I think an emergency/urgent contact line should always be made available, and companies that shirk that responsibility should be held accountable for that.
I think where you went wrong (and I say this as a completely disinterested party, having never used Turo nor having plans to use Turo, but just watching this part of the industry develop from the sidelines) is assuming that it's perfectly legitimate to create a second account. I can't think of any other place in the travel industry where that kind of action (creating a second account to bypass a policy or limitation) would be acceptable, and it doesn't at all surprise me that your account would be flagged and terminated for that. Although I'm sympathetic to your frustration with Turo, I think you have to accept that this was a self-inflicted wound, although Turo's handling of communication with you does leave much to be desired.